Great Throwback to Giant Monster Films

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2013)

Pacific Rim (2013)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Guillermo del Toro's latest is a grand throwback to the days when Godzilla and other large monsters stalked the screens. Set in the future, the Earth comes under attack by giant sea monsters so they create giant robots controlled by two pilots so that they can be destroyed. It doesn't take long for the monsters to recapture the upper hand and as time on Earth is running out the humans must come up with a new plan of attack. PACIFIC RIM isn't a masterpiece but it's about as good as a film like this can get. While there are a couple flaws to be found along the way, there's still no way to deny that this here is pure entertainment from start to finish. Obviously del Toro knows his genre so fans will see all sorts of winks to earlier movies but the director takes it to the next level and really delivers something that is a lot of fun and full of wonderful action. I'm one who usually speaks against CGI not because of the technique but because so many directors don't know how to properly use it. That's certainly not the case here because the monsters, the robots and the broken down and destroyed cities all look real. This here is very important because it allows one to really connect with everything that's going on on the screen. Another major plus here is that the action scenes are full of wonderful imagination. The battle sequences are usually long, very destructive and oh so much fun and this includes a rather amazing sequence at the end that's underwater. The performances are also quite good with Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff and especially Idris Elba all fitting their roles nicely. Ron Perlman also has a nice supporting bit. As I said, I think there were a couple flaws with one being the running time, which I felt was a bit too long as ten or fifteen-minutes off would have helped things. There were also a few too many shots that were extremely close to the action to the point where you can't get the full view of all the destruction going on. Still, PACIFIC RIM is a great throwback to the early monster films and it's fun from the word go.